Clean Run - August 2013 - 5

But It Really Isn’t Funny or Cute
By Debbie Brooks

A few weeks ago I was sitting in my tent at a trial when
a lady passed me walking her Bichon. The little dog was
happily bouncing along on its leash when a Rottweiler
came out of its ex-pen and made a beeline for the tiny
dog, growling, snarling, with teeth bared. The Bichon
owner frantically picked up her dog while the owner of
the Rottie laughed while her dog lunged and snapped at
the poor little dog, nearly taking out his owner. It’s not
the first time this particular dog has gone after another
dog; he went after my own dog during a long down in
the obedience ring. When the obedience steward called
for the Rottie owner to get back to her dog, she simply
laughed. She informed us that the dog had failed 20 consecutive long sits or downs because he went after other
dogs in the ring.
People who know the dog and owner give them a very
wide berth because of the dog’s propensity for wanting to
eat other dogs. I was told that people no longer attended
agility classes where this particular dog’s owner goes because the dog had tried to attack their dogs. Some of the
smaller dogs he attacked have never gotten over their fear
of bigger dogs. What is really sad is that while the dog
and handler are well-known for being a problem, nothing
has ever been done about it. No one with the authority to
excuse the dog has ever told this woman that her dog’s
behavior is totally unacceptable. In spite of many people
witnessing various incidents, the show committees and
clubs continue to overlook the behavior.
Over three years ago, I was seriously injured by an outof-control dog on a retractable leash belonging to someone I thought was a friend. As a result of the injury, I
went through three surgeries, multiple nerve blocks, and
over eight months of rehab to be able to walk normally again. We won’t even discuss the huge out-of-pocket
medical expenses my insurance did not cover. The injury
took nearly two years of my life. The owner of the dog
never ever apologized, but she did tell me that she could

not believe he would do such a thing because, “He is the
best dog to live with I have ever had.” Several times after
my injury, I saw him walking on a retractable lead again,
nearly knocking someone else to the ground.
I understand that we all think our dogs are special and
cute, but I have to wonder what these owners were thinking. I wonder if they ever considered that while they
thought their dogs behavior was entertaining and unique,
their dogs might injure another dog or person, or even be
injured themselves. We are responsible for managing our
dogs at trials. We need to keep the dogs with social problems out of situations they are not equipped to handle.
But even if we have a well-adjusted and friendly dog,
we need to keep our dog in his own space unless there
is communication with another handler to interact with
their dog. Not everyone wants to be knocked over by a
big, exuberant dog jumping up on them. I suspect that
from the perspective of a small dog, it’s hard to believe
the overexuberant 80+ pound dog coming at him “just
wants to play.” And I’m not trying to just blame large
dogs for harassing small dogs—I have seen plenty of
small dogs that are allowed to get up in the face of bigger, good-natured dogs while their owners appeared to be
equally oblivious to what might happen.
Situations like this would probably come to a screeching halt if dog owners were held accountable at trials.
It would be refreshing to see the show committees and
clubs take some of these incidents more seriously, particularly when the dog is a repeat offender. Is it going to
take a tragedy before owners are held accountable? Just
because you think it is cute doesn’t mean the rest of the
world does.

Debbie Brooks

Debbie Brooks received her DVM from Colorado State University, did her surgical internship at UC Davis, and then completed her surgical residency at Louisiana State
University. She has done referral surgery in metro Phoenix, Arizona, for 23 years. She competes in AKC and USDAA agility, herding, and obedience and she is an AKC
retriever field trial judge. Her current dogs are CH OTCH MACH3 PACH2 Taz UDX3, OM4, MH, MXF, MXG, MJC, MPX4, MPJ5, WCX, QAA (Flat Coated Retriever), MACH2
ADCH Sly CD, PT, MXG, MJG, MXF (Border Collie), Rhet HSAs,OA, AXJ, NF, AD (Border Collie), and her female puppy, Panache (Border Collie).
August 13 | Clean Run

Clean Run - August 2013

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